Stars align for Baden-Baden in Bundesliga

Despite Radek Wojtaszek losing a game to his Polish
apprentice Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Baden-Baden look unstoppable after racking up 10
wins in 10 matches this season. Their challengers are melting away. First last
season’s surprise champions Solingen lost a second match in a row, this time to
Hockenheim, to trail by 4 points. Could Hockenheim mount a challenge? No! They
lost in the very next round, with David Navara beating Evgeny Tomashevsky on
top board.

Baden-Baden roll on

Wojtaszek, Adams, Vallejo and co. are on course for yet another Bundesliga title | photo: Georgios Souledis, official website

Rounds 9 and 10 of the 15-round Chess Bundesliga were played
in venues around Germany this weekend. In each round 8 players represent each
team, and since teams average around 15 players on the roster that means the
strength of a team can vary dramatically between rounds. For instance, Baden-Baden played their 5th highest ranked player, Radek Wojtaszek,
on Board 1 this weekend (Mickey Adams is currently higher rated, but the
ratings are from the start of the year-long event):

1. Baden (RtgAvg:2767, TB1: 20 / TB2: 59)

Bo.

Name

Rtg

FED

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Pts.

Games

RtgAvg

1

GM

Caruana Fabiano

2807

1

½

1,5

2

2602

2

GM

Vachier-Lagrave Maxime

2811

½

1

1,5

2

2580

4

GM

Anand Viswanathan

2776

½

1

1,5

2

2570

5

GM

Svidler Peter

2745

0

½

½

1

1

1

4,0

6

2640

6

GM

Wojtaszek Radoslaw

2746

1

1

½

½

½

1

½

0

5,0

8

2613

7

GM

Adams Michael

2745

1

1

1

½

½

1

5,0

6

2608

8

GM

Vallejo Pons Francisco

2711

½

½

½

½

2,0

4

2612

9

GM

Kasimdzhanov Rustam

2691

1

1

½

1

1

½

5,0

6

2580

10

GM

Bacrot Etienne

2692

1

½

1

0

½

1

½

1

½

½

6,5

10

2528

11

GM

Shirov Alexei

2679

½

1

1

1

0

½

½

4,5

7

2501

12

GM

Naiditsch Arkadij

2684

1

1

1

1

1

1

½

1

½

½

8,5

10

2460

13

GM

Movsesian Sergei

2677

½

1

1

1

1

½

5,0

6

2479

14

GM

Meier Georg

2648

1

1

1

1

4,0

4

2426

16

GM

Gustafsson Jan

2628

1

½

1

½

1

4,0

5

2396

17

FM

Martin Julian

2288

0

1

1,0

2

2339

Baden-Baden did just enough, with wins on the bottom two
boards in each round leading to 5:3 wins in their two matches. You can play through any game in the event by clicking on a result in the selector below:

In Round 9 it
was Anand’s second Radek Wojtaszek against Carlsen’s second Laurent Fressinet
in a sharp theoretical struggle that ended abruptly on move 24. In Round 10 a
quirk of the pairings meant that Polish no. 1 Wojtaszek met Polish no. 2
Jan-Krzysztof Duda on top board. Both players are missing the 2017 Polish
Championship that starts in Warsaw on Tuesday (Wojtaszek is second seed in the
Sharjah Masters Open beginning on Thursday), so there was added spice to the
contest.

Is Jan-Krzysztof Duda ready to break into the elite? | photo: Georgios Souleidis, official website

Duda is 18 years old and second only to Wei Yi on the junior
rating list. In Round 9 he showed
how to mate with bishop and knight vs. Sebastien Feller, while in Round 10
he showed he can kill the Najdorf almost as convincingly as Wei Yi! The first
new move of the game was Wojtaszek’s 23…Ndf6 and soon the youngster got the
upper hand in the complications, until finishing with a knockout final blow:

40.Be6! If a family fork with a bishop is possible this is
what it looks like!

That was Wojtaszek’s first loss of the season, but his
teammates more than made up with it, with wins for Mickey Adams, Georg Meier
and a certain Jan Gustafsson sealing victory.

Challengers fall like flies

Last year’s champions Solingen were without Anish Giri and
Harikrishna, who play in the Shenzhen
Masters in China from Thursday onwards, and although their team led by
Richard Rapport whitewashed Griesheim 8:0 in Round 10 that was too little too
late for this season. In Round 9 they suffered a second loss in a row as they
were crushed 5.5:2.5 by Hockenheim. The scene was set by quick losses for Jan
Smeets against Ivan Saric and Predrag Nikolic against Dennis Wagner.

Dennis Wagner won in style in Round 9, but fell to a loss in Round 10 | photo: Guido Giotta, official website

The latter
game was a beauty, though one Nikolic will have struggled to admire, since his
13…hxg5? was already the losing mistake. We saw why after 14…Qxg5:

15.Ra2! and White swings the rook across the deserted second
rank to devastating effect! 15…Qd8 (15…Qg3+ 16.Rf2 only stops the plan for one
move – Rh3 will expel the queen) 16.Rah2 Nf6 and the simple but striking: 17.Qc2!

The bloodbath began with 17…g6 18.Rxh7! Nxh7 19.Qh2 and
three moves later Black resigned. With his team needing a win at all costs
Robin van Kampen sacrificed a piece against Baadur Jobava (who had previously
sacrificed a pawn), but all it did was give him a lost position.

Baadur Jobava is back up at 2710 after beating Robin van Kampen | photo: Guido Giotta, official website

That win kept Hockenheim within 3 points of Baden-Baden, but
if they had an outside chance of a title challenge it lasted under 24 hours,
since they were beaten by Mulheim Nord in Round 10. Wagner lost this time, as did Buhmann, and wins for Saric and Balogh were only a consolation since Evgeny
Tomashevsky lost the highest rated game of the day to the ever dangerous David
Navara. The Czech no. 1 had Tomashevsky thinking for 40 minutes on move 13 and
continued to play original and aggressive chess. This is the position after the
pawn sacrifice 18.f5!

Tomashevsky rejected it with 18…f6, but was gradually
outplayed, with Navara managing to win a finely balanced rook ending against
one of the game’s greatest technicians.

David Navara beat Evgeny Tomashevsky in the key game of the day | photo: Guido Giotta, official website

Evgeny slipped out of the 2700 club, and to make matters worse he had to pay hotel bills for an impostor...

That loss for Hockenheim left Schwaebisch Hall as the
closest team to Baden-Baden at only a 3 points deficit, after they won their two
matches despite missing their top 5 of Inarkiev, Jakovenko, Rodshtein, Matlakov
and Laznicka. Their most memorable game of Round 10, though, was the one they
lost after Frank Zeller played 31.Qe5?? in a tricky but defensible position:

White is offering a queen exchange and hinting at mate, but Black gets there
first! 31…Qh1+ 32.Ke2 Rd2+! Here White
resigned rather than allow 33.Bxd2 Rxd2# on the board!

There are only two weekends remaining of the 2016/17
Bundesliga. First they play Rounds 11 and 12 on April 8-9, then the final three
rounds take place in one venue, with the teams all converging on Berlin from
April 29-May 1. Let’s hope there’s still some intrigue and we get to see the teams
playing their top players!